Healthy Eating Habits
As you get older, what you eat and drink becomes more of your own decision instead of somebody else telling you what to eat. The younger you start getting into healthy eating habits, the more beneficial and easier it will be to continue to eat healthy throughout your life.
By being more conscious of what you eat and how it affects your body, you’ll start to notice how your energy levels may be improving. Staying away from processed food, saturated fats, and sugary snacks, you’ll start to notice that you feel more energetic throughout the day. Just making the switch from these unhealthy foods to better alternatives can be the small push you need to improve your diet.
Starting to make the change can be difficult, especially if you aren’t the one buying groceries. Talking with your family about making small changes in your food can help all of you start eating healthier and you will have a support system to help you through the change. Eating healthier isn’t something that will be done overnight so having the support of family or friends might be something you’ll want so you stay on track.
When it comes to eating healthy, you can’t cut all the bad food out of your diet all at once. Changes this big can be very stressful, so here are some tips for slowly changing your eating habits!
Tips:
Start with one change at a time!
EX: Switching your soda for water. By doing this one thing at a time, your mind and body won’t be overwhelmed by change so the chances of it succeeding are higher. Make sure to give yourself time to get used to the change before adding another one!
Eat Breakfast!
There’s a reason it’s called the most important meal of the day. This will “set the stage” for how your day will go since eating breakfast will give you the energy you need to start your day right, and this will be the starting point for how much you eat the rest of the day.
Practice cooking!
Cooking your own food is not only a healthier option but also an essential life skill. You can learn how to incorporate fresh ingredients into your meals and this alone can make a big impact on your eating habits. Check out this website for some beginner cooking lessons if you wanted to learn some basics: Cooking 101: 20 Lessons to kick start your cooking skill (lifehack.org)
Learn how to read nutrition labels!
Knowing how to read nutrition labels is very important since you will be able to understand how much of something you should be eating (serving size) and if the food is actually healthy or full of processed ingredients.
Check out this article for more information on taking charge of your health!
Take Charge of Your Health: A Guide for Teenagers | NIDDK (nih.gov)
This article was developed by Sarah Dietrich, an Illinois State University student working as an Intern for the Always Unstoppable Campaign.
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